The Broken Road
by Gottabeelove
Summary: This was the biggest decision she had ever made and the most definite, but it was also one of the simplest. Caroline followed her heart and her heart was in Brooklyn. Posting from Tumblr


"_It won't be enough for you._" Those words rang through Caroline's head several times since Klaus had said them to her and it was driving her mad. She did not want to think about them or him or all of the carrots he had dangled in front of her, but the thoughts were there. She could push them down, bury them as best she could, but every so often it would spring to the surface that she had an _option_. For the first time in her short eighteen years, someone had laid something in front of her that did not involve living out the rest of her days in a small town in Virginia and she could not deny the appeal, but no. She loved Tyler and he loved her. He had gone through hell to break the sire bond and he had done that for her, but it felt different. She wanted things to be perfect. She tried so hard for everything to just fall into place after that night. Their 'Klaus-free' life was supposed to begin and everything be smooth sailing from that point out, but it was not right. Nothing felt right and she was certain she was not the only one who felt it. She knew Tyler could feel every time she flinched away from his touch or hesitated during a kiss no matter how hard she tried not to. The look on his face when he would leave her said it all, it was killing him and they both knew.

Caroline could not admit it though. She made up excuses, reasons why she was no longer interested in hanging out at the Grill or why she could never quite look Tyler in the eye when they were in bed. Admitting it meant she had made a mistake, it meant regret and worst of all, it meant that she was betraying all of her friends. Tyler asked her what was wrong often and he always believed her when she gave him pathetic excuses. That's when she realized Tyler was lying to himself too. The moment he stopped being able to read her was the moment she stopped lying to herself. The night of graduation Caroline found herself in her room instead of at the various parties going on in celebration of surviving the last eighteen years. Her phone had not stopped ringing since she left the ceremony; Elena, Tyler, Bonnie, Matt, her mother, even one stray call from Damon that she was certain Elena had put him up to, but she didn't answer any of them. Instead, she turned it off, opening her bedside table to stow it out of sight. Then she saw it. The single thing she had of his and it hit her. She carefully took the drawing out of the drawer and sat down on the edge of the bed, staring down at the piece of parchment in her trembling hands. The man who had saved her life, not once but twice, the one who had tried to give her a better life was decaying at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and she had thrown a party over it. She was trying to prove to her friends, to Tyler, and mostly to herself that she was on their side instead of on seated firmly on the fence about everything. The tears rolled freely down her cheeks as she laid down, curling up in bed with the piece of paper pressed to her chest. She had never even said thank you.

She tried to pull herself together when she heard footsteps on the stairs, but found it impossible. "I'll be out in a minute, Mom!" she called out, trying to keep her voice as even as she willed herself to stop crying. Her mind raced for an excuse to tell her mother when she heard the door open, but much to her surprise when she turned over it was Stefan standing alone in her door way. His eyes moved from her tear-stained cheeks to the picture in her hands and it did not take much time for the dots to connect in his mind.

"The Caroline Forbes I know is not one to skip a party, certainly not one she helped plan. You didn't show up at the falls. I thought something might be wrong, I thought right," he said, uncrossing his arms and walking over to the bed. She pushed herself up against her headboard as he took a seat on the edge of the bed. She tried desperately to read his expression, searching his eyes for any sign of disapproval or anger. He had every right to be angry at her. She was mourning the very person who had tried to kill the love of his life, tried to kill him and his brother on multiple occasions, but she did not find anger. There only emotion she could detect was sympathy and that's when she truly fell apart.

"I'm an awful person. I should hate him. I should hate him so much for what he did to Elena and Tyler and you, but I can't. I can't do it Stefan. I didn't even know I liked him until he was gone. I didn't know I felt anything for him but hatred and contempt, but I miss him. I miss him so much," she exploded with words. It was the first time she had allowed herself to even think them, led alone admit them to someone. She was expecting a lecture. Him to remind her of all the horrible things Klaus had done not only to everyone else but to her personally, but he did not. Instead, he pulled her close to him, holding her tightly as she cried. There was not a hint of anger or judgment in his demeanor and Caroline was more than surprised when he finally opened his mouth to say something.

"I know," he stated simply and Caroline gave him a confused look. "And you are not an awful person. You are a good person and your ability to look past someone's flaws and still care about them is what makes you such a good person. We can't control who we care for, Caroline." She could detect a hint of sadness in his last statement; Stefan knew more than she ever could about how painful misplaced feelings could be.

He let her sit with him for a few minutes before he let her go, standing up. She could see the pained expression on his face before he disappeared and she could not help but worry. She had told him her deepest secret and then he disappeared, her mind racing of him telling Elena or Damon or worse Tyler. She was pacing her room thinking of the many excuses she could give them all about her emotional confession to Stefan when he reappeared in her doorway holding a small bad, extending it out to her.

"What's this?" she asked, taking the bag from him and opening it up. She raised an eyebrow as she looked down and saw several blood bags. "Blood bags?"

"It's Elena's blood. The bags that Klaus managed to get from her before Tyler intervened. I'm trusting your negotiation skills. Use them wisely," he told her before handing her a small piece of paper with an address and several other numbers scribbled on it. "We didn't exactly make it to the Atlantic Ocean with his body. It's in a storage unit in Brooklyn. That's the address and all the information you will need." Caroline nodded, looking down at the paper in her hands as she tried to process all the information. He was not gone for good. She had the power to bring him back, she could fix this. "Caroline look at me," Stefan said, pulling her from her inner ramblings as she looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "This is not a decision you can make lightly. You cannot undo this. If you go and wake Klaus, there is no coming back here. Tyler, Damon, Elena, Bonnie, they won't forgive you for this. If you do this, you need to be sure. Not only of your feelings, but sure you can convince him not to come back here. Like I said, I trust you, but you need to know everything. You aren't going to have friends to come back to if you change your mind." She nodded, well aware of the implications of her actions.

"Are you sure he'll listen to me?" she asked, needing some kind of reassurance.

"It doesn't matter what I think. It only matters if you are sure," he told her, resting his hands on her shoulders. Sometimes she wondered why Stefan always had so much faith in her when she did not feel like she deserved it all of the time. "He just doesn't want to be alone, Caroline."

"He won't be," she said simply.

After Stefan left, Caroline sat down on the edge of the bed and took in everything Stefan had told her. This was the biggest decision she had ever made and the most definite, but it was also one of the simplest. Caroline followed her heart and her heart was in Brooklyn. She sunk into her desk chair and wrote out two letters, addressing on to her mother and one to Tyler. It hurt to leave, but it would kill her to stay. Setting the letters on her bed, she shoved a few changes of clothes in a bad along with some blood bags for the road and the drawing before heading down to the garage and backing her car out of it. She took one last long look at her house, knowing it was probably the last time she would ever see it, before pulling onto the road and heading towards the highway.

The trip seemed a lot longer than she short five hours the GPS told her it would take, but she finally arrived in front of the seemingly ordinary storage unit and made her way inside. With two bags of blood tucked into her purse, she clutched the paper tightly in her hands as she walked down the aisles, looking for unit number four seventy-nine. She paused when she found it, taking a deep breath as something in the back of her mind reminded her that she could go back, but she quickly shook it away, turning the combination lock to the combination Stefan had given her. When the lock clicked into place, she raised the rolling door and lowered it behind her, using a flash light to illuminate the room. There was a moment of panic when she couldn't locate a coffin, but soon after her flashlight fell upon a body bag in the corner of the room with the words 'PROPERTY OF MYSTIC FALLS CORONER'S OFFICE' typed on it. "Classy, Damon," she huffed, to herself as she walked over to the bag and unzipped it with bated breath. It was a hard sight to take in, the greyed and lifeless face of the man she had spent so much time fighting feelings for. His body had been sitting here for more than a month now and another pang of guilt accompanied that thought. She knelt down next to him, holding the flashlight between her teeth as she pulled a blood bag from her purse and tore open the top, pouring some into his mouth.

"Well, this should come with an instruction manual," she mumbled to herself as she poured a bit more blood into his mouth. She wished she knew how this whole process worked; all she knew was blood would bring him back and she couldn't help but think that a time estimate would have been helpful. She had no idea how long it would take, but she was persistent and patient, continuing to pour the blood in each time it disappeared. Then she saw it. His eyes shot open and before she knew it, his fangs sunk into her shoulder and soon after everything went black.

When Caroline came to she looked around, taking in the beautiful hotel room she seemed to be laying in, Klaus's black jacket wrapped around her. She moved to sit up and was immediately struck by the pain in her shoulder and she remembered the bite. Her hand clamped over it as she looked around the room, spotting a glass on the night stand full of blood sitting on top of a note that read 'Drink Me'. She lifted it up and brought it to her lips, drinking it without a second thought and just as she suspected if was Klaus's blood. Once her bite had a few moments to heal, she looked around the hotel room, not finding any sign of Klaus aside from his jacket. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes as the gravity of the situation sunk in. He was gone. She had let him out and he had left her in a hotel room. She had given up her entire life for a chance to right a wrong and it had backfired on her in the biggest way possible. She began to wonder what she would do now. She could not go home, for the first time in her life she was completely on her own.

"You look like someone just murdered your puppy. What has you so bloody ticked, Love?" Klaus asked as he walked back into the room with two bags in one hand. Caroline whipped around to see him and she was not sure she had ever been so relieved in her life.

"I thought you left," she said, honestly.

"I'm a monster, but I'm still a gentlemen. I try not to make a habit out of leaving women in hotel rooms to die. At least not ones I'm fond of," he winked, setting the bags down on the bed. "I went to get you some blood. I thought you might be thirsty, I did drain you. Sorry about that, I'm an animal, what can I say?" he said, a cocky smile gracing his lips.

"Thank you," she said quietly, opening the bag he set down and taking one of the blood bags out of it. She downed one quickly before greedily reaching for the next, swallowing it back rather ungracefully, but not truly caring.

"So what is it that you need me to do? It must be pretty important if you are here waking me up. I'm surprised the dog let you go alone," he commented, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. She was a bit hurt that he thought she was only here because she wanted something, but then again, she had never given him a reason to think anything but negatively about her intentions with her.

"Actually, they don't know I'm here," she said, tentatively. "They would probably be pretty angry with me if they did," she added, looking down at her hands. That seemed to peak his interest, because his attention turned one hundred percent to her, setting down the blood bag he was drinking as he waited for her to continue on. "It wasn't right. What happened. You saved my life and then you were repaid like this. I couldn't live with that…" She trailed off, wanting to gauge his reaction before going on.

"Touching Caroline, but forgive me for being more than skeptical," he said. "I'm free, what's to stop me from running back to Mystic Falls and ridding Tyler, Damon, and Stefan of their pesky beating hearts for putting me in a body bag in the first place?"

"Me," she said, her voice unsteady. She could tell he was holding his wall firm until she gave him a reason to take it down and part of her was scared even then he would not, but there was no reward without risk and she knew that. She took a deep breath before opening her mouth. "I was stupid and scared and refused to own up to the fact that I felt something for you." She hesitated for a moment before continuing on. "I don't love you, but I do like you. I want to try this and we can't try this with you in a body bag. No one knows I'm here yet but Stefan; he gave me the address and told me what to do. Everyone is going to hate me so I can't even go back there. I just thought that we deserved an honest go at this and I didn't know how to tell you that before but I-" Her ramblings were cut off as the hybrid pressed his lips against her, his fingers tangling in her blonde hair as he held her close. She was surprised at first, but her lips quickly responded to his, her hand grasping at his dirty blonde curls as her lips parted to allow him entrance.

After a few breathless minutes, they pulled away, his forehead rested against hers as he thought about what had just transpired between them. She had turned her back on her friends to save him. To wake him up just so they could have a chance to be together, he was certain no one had ever taken that kind of chance on him before. It only reaffirmed that Caroline was special and his interest in her was not misplaced in the slightest. His fingers traced softly down her jaw, bringing her lips back to his for another kiss, this one much slower than the first. It was a surreal experience for both of them, they had imagined this before and reality beat the imagined a million to one.

Caroline pulled away from him again, this time looking him in the eye as she tried to piece together her words before she spoke. "I have to be enough though. If I'm going to be here with you, I have to be enough for you. You can't go back to Mystic Falls and kill everyone for what happened. You can't go back and drain Elena. I have to be enough," she told him, keeping a strong demeanor even though she was terrified of his answer on the inside. "I have two bags of Elena's blood in my bag. Stefan's version of a peace offering if that sweetens the deal."

"This isn't a dowry, Caroline," he chuckled, shaking his head as he tucked a blonde curl behind her ear. "Now why would I take my girl back to that one pony town ever again?" he asked, answering her question in his own special way. "You don't have to sweeten the deal," he whispered against her lips as he leaned in to kiss her again, his hands peeling his jacket from her shoulders. His hand rested on her hip as the other one cradled the back of her neck, leaning her back towards the bed as his tongue invaded her mouth. His hands wandered her body, trailing down her legs and beginning to toy with the hem of her dress.

The mere notion of him touching her bare skin sent a shiver down her spine and she craved more. Her hands met the edge of his shirt, pulling it over his head and dropping it to the floor. She watched her fingers drag down his chest before returning her gaze to his, drawing a deep breath as she felt his hands slip beneath her dress, slowly pushing it up her legs. Her hands moved to meet his, pulling the dress over her head and letting it join his shirt on the floor.

"Someone is impatient.." he mumbled against her jaw as his lips brushed against her skin, making their way down to her neck. "We have all the time in the world, Love. Now let me ravish you properly." She could hear the smirk in his voice as his tongue traced a path to her collarbone, dragging her bra strap down her arm and out of his way before focusing his attention on the bare flesh in front of him. After a moment, he switched sides, doing the same with her other strap before reaching behind her and unhooking the grey lace, tossing it aside. He was intent on memorizing each inch of her body, which spots made her gasp or shiver, cataloging them for future use. His mouth lowered to her nipple, swirling his tongue around the hardened peaks as her back arched underneath him, repeating the process with her left breast as his hands trailed down her sides, looping around the matching grey knickers and pulling them down until she was completely bare underneath him. She was more beautiful than he had imagined and he was not quite sure how that was possible. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that she was even here, underneath him, letting out the most enticing moans he had ever heard as he kissed down her stomach. His hands gripped her thighs gently, moving them apart as he kissed teasingly up the inside of her right thigh.

Caroline gasped, pulling at the sheets when he finally reached the apex of her thighs, running his tongue up her slit and swirling it experimentally around the tiny bundle of nerves. Her moans were heavenly and he would have done anything to hear more, teasing her entrance before inserting two fingers, curling and scissoring them inside. She moved a hand to the back of his head, gripping his curls as her head dipped back. His tongue was exquisite, she had never felt anything like it. His thirteen hundred years of experience were rapidly bringing her to her desired finish.

Klaus could tell she was close and he was going to do everything in his power to make it explosive. He withdrew his fingers with much protest from Caroline before his tongue delve into her, exploring her wet walls as he searched for that special place inside her. He moved his thumb to take over his ministrations on her clit while his tongue thrust expertly until he heard her cry out. His eyes flicked up, watching her in all her glory as he brought her to the edge. The sight in front of him only made him was her more as he kissed lazily up her stomach, giving her ample time to recover as he lowered his lips to hers, kissing her softly. Her hands met his on his belt buckle, both working to undo them and remove the last piece of clothing that separated their bodies until all of their clothing was on the floor.

"Klaus, please," she whispered.

"Yes, sweetheart," he questioned, a cocky grin on his lips as he hitched one of her legs around his hip, aligning himself before he entered her. Her hands curled around his shoulders, holding him as close as possible as they found a rhythm, her hips rolling against his in perfect tandem with his thrusts. Her legs wrapped around his hips, groaning as his lips found their way to her neck again. He was driving her crazy and she was certain he was well aware of this fact. Everything from the teasing kisses on her neck to the erratic and unpredictable pattern of his thrusts was calculated to bring her to the edge once again.

Caroline tilted her head back against the pillows, giving him more access to her beck as he bit gently, not allowing his teeth to pierce her soft skin. He had an interest in biting her again; he had not taken the time to enjoy her blood when he bit her earlier. The blood lust had taken control of him when she had awoken him, but now was not the time. He was going to focus on her; her needs, her pleasure, just her. His thrusts evened, becoming more consistent as he lowered his mouth to her left breast. As her breathing became more erratic, he knew he was on the right path, swirling his tongue around the sensitive bud. Caroline's fingers tangled in his hair as she neared the edge, gripping tightly as she brought his lips back to hers, panting against his lips.

"That's it, Caroline. Come for me," he whispered against her lips, reaching between their bodies and brushing his fingers over the most sensitive part of her. The small push was all she needed to fall over the edge, her finger tips digging into his shoulder as she tightened around him, breathing his name like a prayer. He groaned as she pulsed around him, drawing out his own orgasm. He rest his forehead against hers as they both allowed their breathing to even out, waiting for her to relax before pulling out and pulling her against him.

It was comfortable. The comfortable silence was something she had never had with a boyfriend before and she enjoyed it. Her head settled in against the crook of his neck as his hand traced patterns on her back and it was the most at ease she had felt in months. No danger. No enemy. No friends to feel conflicted towards, just the two of them in a bed that she never wanted to get out of.

Caroline woke up the next morning when she heard the door click open, looking up to see Klaus stroll back into the room with a large yellow envelope in his hands. She pulled the sheet around herself as she pushed herself up against the headboard. "You have a very bad habit of not being here when I wake up," she commented, reaching for one of the blood bags on the nightstand and taking a lazy sip from it.

"Had to see a man about some passports and get the concierge to arrange a car for the airport," he told her, watching as she raised an eyebrow at the word airport. "You said you didn't want to go back to Mystic Falls and I believe I promised you Paris. No time like the present, Love." He smirked at her as his eyes roamed her naked form. "As much as I like my view, I think you are going to have to get dressed for the airplane."

"How much time do we have?" Caroline asked as she climbed out of bed and pulled a change of clothes from her bag.

"Flight leaves in an hour, but I have a feeling they will wait for us. We're the only ones on the plane," he commented nonchalantly as she pulled on the clothing, stealing his jacket from his hands and pulling it over her shoulders.

"Let's go then." She smiled, tossing her bag over her shoulder and taking his hand as she followed him out of the hotel room. He brushed his lips over her knuckles as he helped her into the cab.

"The world awaits, Caroline."


End file.
